Week 6 – Poverty, Homeless and Pregnant Teens (this is graphic)Shelter.
Questions for Week 6As you watch this video take notes on the different teens they spotlight. Which story stands out to you the most (summarize it) and why?How does that story relate to the Lesson Material? Make sure to support your answers with facts from the Lesson Material.What are your thoughts about the staff who work with those teens? The work they do is not easy. What qualities do you see in them that enables them to do what they do?Conclude your entry with your “take-aways” – what did you learn, agree with, disagree with, want to learn more about, etc.? How do you feel about what you watched?
Runaway Youth
Kaltura Capture recording – February 13th 2020, 11:09:24 am
0:00 / 4:26
An audio recording of the lesson is available by select the icon above. It may take a
minute to load.
Why Do Kids Run Away?
Another reason we find children homeless is because they run away. Now kids runaway
for a variety of reasons. One reason is to escape an abusive home. Adolescents who
leave their homes often face uncertainty on the street and a risk of entering their own
life of poverty. They may have come from a family life of poverty, but once they hit the
street now it truly becomes their own life of poverty. It is not uncommon for you to get
involved in criminal behavior, drugs, prostitution, theft, to survive on the streets. They
get out there and realize I have to do what I have to do to survive. Typically that
involves criminal behavior.
Another issue that we see involves the LGBTQ, lesbian, gay, bisexual transgender
community. More and more we’re hearing about kids who are struggling with those
issues. When they come from a family who does not support them through that time of
conflict, they risk homelessness as well. What happens is when the family doesn’t
support them, it ends up being a sore spot within the family. Some families react in a
very harsh way when, more and more, children are feeling empowered to come out, to
not live in secrecy. When they do this, the family reaction is not always loving and
supportive. Sometimes it’s very negative and the kids feel that disapproval and are
either kicked out, sadly, or run away because they don’t feel accepted in their own home
and they feel that they have no other choice. For those youth, it can be very challenging,
because while there are few teen homeless shelters, it’s very, very hard to find one that
is geared for the LGBTQ population. If they find shelter by hiding who they are so that
they can get in off the street, but someone figures it out, they often face negative
remarks, not only from the peers in the shelters, but the staff members as well. It may
not be very welcoming and/or accepting. It’s a challenging situation for those kids as
well.
According to the National Alliance to end homelessness in 2015, compared to homeless,
heterosexual, heterosexual youth, LGBTQ youth have higher rate of physical and sexual
abuse, mental health problems, and unsafe sex practices. So we know, I mean, this is no
secret. This has been going on, our media talks now for quite some time, that these
youth are already at risk. They’re facing some challenges. And when families aren’t
supportive and they take to the streets, it becomes a more dire situation. We know from
the research that has been done that the LGBTQ youth are more likely to exchange sex
for housing and shelter. And they have higher instances of abuse and violence at
homeless shelters and on the street, they’re twice as likely to attempt suicide than their
heterosexual peers. Any homeless youth is at risk and absolutely needs help, but this
population specifically seems to be at a heightened risk out on the street.
Independent Living
Kaltura Capture recording – February 13th 2020, 11:17:57 am
0:00 / 7:23
An audio recording of the lesson is available by select the icon above. It may take a
minute to load.
Aging Out of the System
Have you ever wondered what happened to the kids in foster care and never get
adopted, or are the kids in those residential placements that we talked about once they
turn 18, what are the options for the kids who age out of the system? Typically, children
aged out of foster care by turning 18. Now, there may be provisions for continuing the
support of a child if that child wants more education or has a physical or mental
disability. But for others, 18 is the cutoff age.
We’re going to talk a little bit more about some of the programs in a second and it will
vary like like we’ve said before, state to state. That will be something that you’ll wanna
look into if you’re curious about what your state offers. Eighteen is typically the cutoff
age if a plan isn’t put into play. At 18, the foster parent and the child choose how that
relationship will continue. Again, what if that child’s in one of the residential placements
we talked about? Who prepared you for life as an adult? For many of us, that was our
parents or the people who raised us. Unless the foster parents step up, foster children
and don’t have anyone to prepare them for life on their own. How to get and maintain a
job, budgeting, how to find a place to live, set up utilities, pay bills, what to do after high
school, tech school, college, the military. If a child’s in a residential facility or setting,
who helps them prepare for life after foster care system? The responsibility for their
emancipation, education, life on their own, life as an adult, rests with their legal parent.
Well, who is that? That’s the state or the county agency, whoever holds that title.
Programs had been set up to enable foster children to develop the skills they need to
leave care. Youth leaving care need practical information, but they also need help
addressing their personal need. Remember, these kids came into the system for a
reason. The abuse that they went through, that left scars. And if that wasn’t addressed
during their time in foster care, they don’t just go away. Depending on what they went
through in foster care, if they went through multiple placements, if they endured further
abuse, more hardship they may have added to the existing scars that they came into
foster care with. A full assessment should be done of this psychological, emotional, and
health-related needs of each foster child about to leave care. Once the needs are
identified, they can be addressed as part of their aging out or independent living plan. So
what do they do at independent living? Have you heard of it? Well, the independent living
program is a “federally funded program designed to improve the transition into adulthood
for children ages 13 to 18 in a licensed out-of-home care placement.” We talked about
those. “To be successful upon departure from care, each youth will have an opportunity
to learn skills based on their individualized need.” The ultimate goal is for all youth,
regardless of their personal plan, to be able to live independently.
Making Sure They’re Ready and Able
Remember back when I talked about my time in the field and I used to tell parents and
caretakers “The State doesn’t want your children, we want children to remain with their
family if it’s healthy and safe environment.”? Well, the kids who had the come in to care,
we don’t want to just dump them out into the world. We, we want them to be ready and
able. We want them to break those unhealthy patterns and cycles that they came out
from, removed from, break those cycles, break those patterns and go on to live healthy,
successful lives. The sad reality is that when foster kids don’t get that counseling, when
they’re not taught those skills.
This comes back to what happens in a foster home. Remember we talked about what a
foster parent does? Foster parent has to step into that role of a temporary parent,
teaching these skills, getting the kids ready if the child doesn’t obtain the skills necessary
to make it on their own, they’re more likely to repeat those patterns that brought them
into the foster care system in the first place. They need those skills to be successful.’
Recent Statistics
According to fosterfocusmag.com, recent statistics tell us that approximately 400
thousand youth are currently in foster care in our country. And about 20 thousand age
out each year without any positive family support or any family connection at all. Within
18 months of emancipation, 40 to 50% of foster youth become homeless. nationally,
50% of the homeless population spent time in foster care. Do you guys see the pattern
here? Do you see the cycles we keep continuing? That’s why this material is so important
and that’s why I’m spending so much time on it.
Summary
A history of foster care directly correlates with becoming homeless at an earlier age and
remaining homeless for a longer period of time. At least 65% of youth leaving foster care
need immediate housing upon discharge. So without these programs, without
independent living, these kids wind up out on the street and going right back in to the
cycle that brought them into the foster care system in the first place.
Teen Pregnancy
Kaltura Capture recording – February 13th 2020, 11:27:11 am
0:00 / 18:42
Teens
Clearly, this is a vulnerable population. By supporting the youth that exit the foster care
system in their transition to adulthood, We can help ensure that their risk of
homelessness and repeating those harmful pattern never becomes a reality.
Teen Pregnancy
Another concern for kids in foster care is teen pregnancy. Any idea why we need to cover
that population in this class? According to the Centers for Disease Control in 2017, a
total of 194,377 babies were born to young ladies age 15 to 19. Our country now, I don’t
know about ya’ll. Yes, that’s my Georgia coming through. I had my first baby right after I
turned 30 and I was overwhelmed and pushed to the edge. With some challenges from
not only labor and delivery, but then the challenges that my son faced, after he was
born, I can’t imagine. That was being 30 years old with a master’s degree and having
worked for years in the field of child welfare. So talk about somebody who thought
mentally they were ready. Let me tell you something. I don’t know how any teen parent
does it.
Think back to the dynamics of abuse and neglect and what the risk factors are. Think
about if you’ve taken child development where a young lady is in her own development
between the ages of 15 to 19. Now granted, that number from 2017 is a drop. From
2016, it’s a 7% drop. However, the US teen pregnancy rate is substantially higher than
other Western industrialized nation. So we got, we’ve got to, and this is a topic for
another class, I realize, but as a country, this is a problem. There’s a lot of research
that’s been going on for years about why, why is this the problem here? The reasons for
the decline in teen pregnancy are crystal-clear. The evidence suggests that maybe the
decline is due to more teens abstaining from sexual activity. That may be more teens
who are sexually active are using more birth control than in previous years. We have to
remember any research that’s done on this field is by -reporting. So it’s coming from
teens who first and foremost, have to admit that they’re sexually active and then be
honest about when they started, whether or not they’re practicing safe sex, etc. So the
research in this field of course, that the birth rate that’s pretty teen mom comes in and
give birth, that information gets reported. But when its teens filling out reports as to
whether or not they’re sexually active, It’s a toss of a coin as to the accuracy there.
Again, we go back to building on what you’ve already learned. Why do we need to cover
that? When it comes to kids in the foster care system, what do you think contributes to
teen pregnancy? Well, guess what? Low levels of education and low income levels. So
less favorable, those less favorable socioeconomic conditions. Low education, low income
of the teens family are known to contribute to high teen birth rate. What else are those
factors of poverty? You remember what we said was the highest risk factor for poverty?
low education level. It all comes back around and all is intertwined. Teens in the child
welfare system are at a higher risk for teen pregnancy and teen birth than any other
group.
Okay, so let’s go a little deeper into this topic. I don’t know how many of you are familiar
with the Guttmacher Institute? That’s a little bit of a mouthful, but they have been
providing research in reproductive, in reproductive health, not just in the. United States
but globally for years. It’s a fantastic resource for you according to their research on teen
pregnancy. You’ve probably come across that before. You’ve probably heard of them
before seeing articles written by them. They are pretty well known in this field. But
according to their research on teen pregnancy in foster care, young women in foster care
are more than twice as likely, than their peers not in foster care to become pregnant by
the age of 19. What’s more troubling is that those who become pregnant experience a
repeat. Many of them get pregnant again before they reach 19. So what they’re saying is
that the first pregnancy for girls in foster care, that rate is high. What’s even worse is
many of them get pregnant again for a second time before they reached 19.
We already know that young people who are in the child welfare system are at a high
risk of health problems, with issues both physical and emotional. We know this, we’ve
already covered it, but in recent years, researchers, caseworkers and advocates have
been paying closer attention to their sexual and reproductive health. That’s where this
research that we’re going to cover from the institute then.
Research
According to their research on teen pregnancy and foster care, a limited, there have
been a limited number of studies that have explored the reasons behind the elevated
rates of teen pregnancy. But what we know is that the evidence on sexual behaviors is
mixed. There’s some evidence that foster youth on average have their first sexual
experience at a younger age than other adolescents. Now they look at their own research
and they pull research from other programs as well. They looked at a study published in
September 2009. It was in children and youth services review using data from National
Survey on child and adolescent well-being to examine sexual behaviors among nearly
900 youths in the child welfare system, some of whom had a history of foster care and
others who remained with their birth parents. Remember we talked about that, that
sometimes the foster care system can get involved without having to remove the
children. Almost 20% of youths in the child welfare system, 15 years of age, on average,
reported first having consensual sex at or before the age of 13, compared with 8% of 9
to 12th graders in general population. So the general, the general population of kids, 8%
had their first sexual experience somewhere in the high school years.
Why Is This Happening?
But the kids in the child welfare system reported their first sexual experience at or before
the age of 13. So what’s going on? Why is this happening? Why this population
specifically? Well, we know that the kids in the foster care system, obviously, I may not
have the understanding the education that kids in the general population have. We know
that youth and foster care may not feel as motivated to delay childbearing. It has been
made very clear by teen parents that having a child is a way for them to create the
family that they didn’t have or to build that emotional void that is missing. So essentially
what happens is the kids that come into the foster care system are looking to fill a void,
especially when their needs aren’t being met, especially when they’re issues aren’t being
worked out through counseling or the appropriate services. So if they don’t have a foster
home that is educating them, that is helping them express what they’re going through
appropriately. If those needs aren’t being met, then they turn to unhealthy ways to get it
and that inappropriate relationships and quite often end up pregnant. Sometimes it’s on
purpose, not, oops, I’m pregnant, but I’m going to have a baby and I’m gonna get that
life and I’m going to be the mom that I didn’t have. when it comes to prevention.
This is another hot-button issue for me. I push it in the Child Development course that I
teach. I haven’t taught the parenting course in awhile, but when I was teaching it, I
pushed it in the parenting class too because I can’t stress enough the importance of
parents teaching their kid. It’s not just about the sex talk, it should never be the talk
ever. There should be many talks about healthy choices over the life, that child’s life, but
should start when the child is young and little things, hygiene, healthy choices with what
we eat and exercise, and how to dress to take care of our bodies and healthy choices.
When you focus on that when children are young, that topic evolves with the child and
goes right into the dating years and opens that door into dating and relationships and lit
the active sex is one thing, but there’s so much more that goes into a healthy
relationship. Parents are missing that in many cases. What does a healthy relationship
look like? Girls I have worked with girls who had been involved in teen dating. Yes. We
talk about domestic violence. This happens in the teen years and parents aren’t
becoming aware of it until it’s too late, because girls aren’t being taught that a healthy
relationship is not blowing up somebody’s phone with 500 texts per day. I’m going to
stop preaching because this is not the time for it.
Prevention
When it comes to prevention, the evidence is clear. There is clear evidence that shows
that teenagers who feel connected to their parents, who feel that they can talk to their
parents about anything, that their parents will support them, Will listen are far, far more
likely than other teens to first and foremost delay sexual activity, when they do have sex,
use contraception, therefore, are less likely to become pregnant in the teen years. Now,
It goes back to communication and education. This does not mean that you condone it,
because I knew many parents who are like, nope, I told my child no sex, period. That’s
it. That’s the sex talk. Ok. Well, I’ve got news for you and I’ll get us back on track in a
second. Here’s the problem with that”sextalk”.
Most teens, as soon as you tell them no, they go directly towards and think about it.
Take a second and stop and think about how you felt as a teen. When someone told you,
you no, when your parents told, you no, didn’t you want to know why and if they refused
to tell you anything more than no, you went directly towards that no that they told you
no, about. If nothing more than I’ll show them most of us as teens, we’re looking for you
know what? Okay. Fine. Tell me no, but just explain why. Do you know what, I’ll give you
an example. My mom, she knew me. I was strong-willed and stubborn and she had to
stay one step ahead of me. So we had very open and honest discussion on this topic and
what happened as my relationships evolved and I got older and I got to the age where I
was allowed to date, those discussions became more honest and blunt. She told me
point-blank, I cannot make this decision for you. My hope is that you will wait and here is
why. She gave me details. I wish she hadn’t given me, but those details stuck with me.
She went over sexually transmitted diseases in detail. She went over teen pregnancy,
and she made it crystal clear she wasn’t raising my child. She would support me in any
way that she could. But she said, Look, it’s your body and it’s your decision, but you
have to live with your consequences. Those are not my consequences. Those are your
consequences. So you can sit here and say all day, it’s my choice and it is your choice.
But so were the consequences that come with it. You know, those words stuck with me. I
was stubborn and I was strong-willed, and I bumped against her in many areas of my
life. But that one discussion with her stuck and we had many discussions after.
I leave you with that because the research is clear when it comes to prevention. When
teens feel that they had parents who are able and willing to talk with them about this,
they are far more likely to not only wait, to have sex, but when they do, and they are
educated on safe sex, they practiced it, and they’re far less likely to become pregnant.
Now, youth in foster care, that being said, Come back to our youth in foster care. How
many youths have that? How many foster parents are providing that? Most biological
parents aren’t providing it still, we can’t expect that it’s happening in foster care now. We
know instability, unfortunately, is a way of life for many of the youth in the foster care
system, and it makes it so difficult to give them pregnancy prevention services. We know
that the care foster care kids receive is sporadic and it’s disjointed because caseworkers,
that turnover is high, they often change placement and there is a lack of coordination
between the agencies that may be involved with the child. We know that all their foster
care is intended to be a temporary safety net. Many of the children in the foster care
system have extended stays, so they may bounce from place to place, but as far as their
time in the system, it’s not always as temporary as we hope it will be. So we know that
each year and these numbers may bounce around, but each year in our country, about
700,000 children and youth are serviced by the foster care system. So again, be it at a
home for You know, they come into care. So they’re out-of-home, some out of home
placement or in-home services. The foster care services are provided approximately to
700,000 children in our country each year. At the end of each year, about 424,000
children are still receiving those services. 58% of children are in foster care for more
than a year and 23% are in for three or more years. 11% age out of the foster care
system by 18 or 21, depending on what the policy is without a safe, permanent family.
Pregnancy Prevention
Kaltura Capture recording – February 13th 2020, 11:48:13 am
0:00 / 13:10
An audio recording of the lesson is available by select the icon above. It may take a
minute to load.
Teen Pregnancy Risk Factors
Okay. So that brings us to pregnancy prevention because we already know that if a teen
gets pregnant, has the baby, keeps the baby. That puts the. Teen Mom the child and if
the teen dad is in the picture, we’ve got a whole bunch of risk factors. If you go back to
the abuse and neglect and what brings the child into care. You’ve got more than likely
two young kids themselves who have not finished their education. They’re probably still
in high school. They may have a GED or maybe they graduated, but where are they
going without a college degree or some form of education? How far can they go? They’re
probably going to be living in poverty without some more training, some more education.
Now you’ve got all these risk factors that come right back into the picture that go hand in
hand when a teen gets pregnant and then subsequently becomes a parent.
Prevention
As far as prevention, so we know that we have for foster care, there are also pregnancy
prevention initiatives to help the kids in foster care delay and hopefully prevent
pregnancy during the teen years. In September 2010, the Department of Health and
Human Services announced the award of a 155 million in teen pregnancy prevention
grants to states’ non-profit organizations, school districts, and other agencies. The grants
were put in place, to support the replication of a teen pregnancy prevention program
shown to be effective through rigorous research, as well as the testing of new innovative
approaches to combating teen pregnancy. The funds come from two different programs.
100 million comes from a teen pregnancy prevention program appropriated by the
consolidated appropriations act of 2010, which replaced the community-based grants for
abstinence-only education. It is administered by the Office of Adolescent Health within
the office of the Assistant Secretary for Health. I know that’s all a big mouthful, but what
you need to know is that there’s a 100 million that comes from teen pregnancy
prevention program and it replaced the community-based grants for abstinence-only,
which is important because while many people (and I don’t want to step on any toes
here.)
While many people are firm in the abstinence-only approach, the research has shown us
that it’s not only, not, not effective, it’s dangerous because the abstinence-only
programs, typically, I’m not saying always, but typically in teaching abstinence-only,
they’re not educating kids on how to make healthy choices when it comes to protecting
themselves when they do become sexually active. So it’s not educating them on safe
sex. That’s dangerous because it sets kids up. They go out into the world and they make
the decision to become sexually active. They don’t know how to protect themselves from
sexually transmitted diseases, as well as open the door for teen pregnancy. Abstinenceonly education is problematic. They believe, as far as the research shows could be part of
the problem for our high pregnancy rates because so many states would only allow
abstinence, only education. So again, I’m not trying to step on any toes or, you know,
everybody is entitled to their belief. As parents, you teach your children what you want
to teach your children I’m just going by what the evidence shows us. That when you
teach abstinence, only, you’re closing the door to giving a thorough education and
teaching kids how to protect themselves when it comes to their sexual and reproductive
health.
Education
Fifty-five million comes from the Personal Responsibility Education Program funded under
the Affordable Care Act. This program holds great promise for a better understanding of
the pregnancy prevention approaches that work with youth and foster care system.
Under this statute, states must use these funds for programs that reach the most at risk
of pregnancy, including those or who are homeless or out of school or in foster care. That
program is focused on a targeted group. You know, going back to our homeless kid, what
are they getting in the form of education? If they’re in a homeless shelter and they’re
bouncing from school to school and the only education, they’re getting a school-based.
What if they miss the time at school when sex education has taught? What if the kids in
the foster care system have to spend some time in a residential facility. Even though
they get an education while in those facilities, what if the public school that they were
attending again, covers sex ed while they’re out and the residential program doesn’t
cover it while they’re in? They’re not getting it in the foster home and they’re not getting
it from the biological home to there are plenty of gaps here where these kids miss out if
it’s not being taught by their biological family. We know that foster kids and homeless
youth are missing out on the school-based education.
No Permission for Participation
We also know that kids in foster care may not always have permission to participate in
these classes because some time the foster homes and our caseworkers depending-(remember, we talked about how there are different agencies that provide foster homes
and case management?) Sometimes they’re religious-based. When a religious-based
organization trains their caseworkers and foster parents, they may be very conservative
and not only not provide that education to the kids in their program, they may not
approve or sign a permission slip that comes home from the school to give them that
education because of the belief of the agencies. Remember, we have the federal laws
that guide the state. But the agencies within states make their own policy and
procedures. Again, if the caseworker or the foster parents are working through a
religious backed organization, they may not provide that type of education or give
permission for the kids to get that education.
What Is Needed?
What do we need? What we need, ideally, would be a uniform policy where child welfare
agencies work together to develop and implement a comprehensive pregnancy
prevention strategy that would educate and provide youth within the system ageappropriate, medically accurate, and comprehensive sex education. They should make
sure that foster parents and caseworkers understand the benefit of sex education, that
everyone is on board with this program, that they understand that these types of
prevention programs work.
Education and Sexual Abuse Trauma
Now, some of the problems that we may run into you in this field, if you think back to
children who’ve been traumatized, especially by sexual abuse, they may have a hard
time talking with a foster parent or caseworker about this topic. In that type of scenario,
then there should be a plan in place where if a child we know has been sexually abused
and that child in the foster care system, we need to make sure this is where that
multidisciplinary team comes into effect. then we need to make sure as an agency the
child is getting the appropriate education through their mental health provider in a safe,
secure environment. If a child’s been traumatized through sexual abuse, they need to be
educated, but in a way that they won’t be re-traumatize because of what happened to
them through their sexual abuse experience. Now, foster parents and caseworkers are
already trained when it comes to issues surrounding sexual abuse. But as far as the
training I have ever received I wasn’t trained in how to educate kids in the foster care
system about sexually transmitted diseases, pregnant, the relationships, planning and
decision-making, body image, all of those types of issues.
It would be wonderful if foster parents and caseworkers again, could be given that sort of
training so that everybody could be on the same page and working together to make
sure that kids, because again, this is more than just a discussion about the act of sex.
This is about taking care and taking care of your body and making healthy choices and,
and self-esteem and relationships, there’s so much more to it. When everybody’s on the
same page and can kinda help as a team educate that child. I really truly believe we can
make a dent in how many teens are getting pregnant in the foster care system, but the
appropriate training needs to be approved and provided.
Medical Care
Now, when it comes to the medical aspect, you know, child welfare agencies have
systems in place to make sure the kids in foster care get the health services they need.
Some states have policies requiring medical providers to address sexual activity, sexual
activity, and pregnancy prevention, as well as sexually transmitted infection screening
treatment for kids in foster care. It is not known, however, to what extent child welfare
agencies and healthcare providers incorporate these services into the ongoing health
care that foster youth receives. Though that being said, the medical community is
another one that we should, we should all be working as a multi-disciplinary team in
partnership to make sure the need that these kids’ needs are being met too.
In my experience, the medical community is only getting involved when there’s a sexual
abuse allegation and then a forensic exam has to be done and maybe the child,
unfortunately, we hope to God the child’s not pregnant because of sexual abuse.
Sometimes they have a sexually transmitted infection. So at that point, there has to be a
discussion. The child has to be educated that they have this infection and why. For the
most part, in my experience, the medical community is only there as a typical
pediatrician would be. Still, it would be great to get the medical community on board and
maybe coordinate with Medicaid providers because typically that’s who we take foster
care children to see, give them specialized training to work with foster youth and maybe
set up a referral network for specialty clinics so that foster care parents know, OK, these
are the clinics that I can take my foster care kids to and they will provide this
comprehensive screening and education. At the end of the day that we’ve got to make
sure that that the kids are getting the education that they need.
Order an Essay Now & Get These Features For Free:
Turnitin Report
Formatting
Title Page
Citation
Outline
